“When we look at the basic mechanism of how it works, we are enhancing the microcirculation. We are getting more red blood cells flowing to the area,” Dr. Harrington explains.

"But it’s not just the arterial blood supply to the area; we are enhancing the venous and the lymphatic return from the area. We’re also increasing oxygenation of those tissues. We are stimulating the hemoglobin molecule to dump off oxygen at the treatment site, so we are increasing the oxygenation of those tissues.”

Finally, the treatment stimulates the cytochrome oxidase enzyme in the cells’ mitochondria. This is really one of the key discoveries in the whole science of laser therapy. Specifically, injured cells are targeted because damaged cells are more readily accepting of photons of light, whereas healthy cells don’t need this extra energy.

“By stimulating the cytochrome oxidase enzyme, we are utilizing that oxygen in the respiratory chain inside of the mitochondria, producing more ATP for that cell. So regardless of what kind of cell it is, it’s going to function at a higher level. Now, we are not turbocharging. We’re not making your body do anything that it could not normally do. We’re just facilitating the process. We are helping those cells produce the energy that they normally would, so they can function as they normally should,” he explains.

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